Thursday, 22 September 2011

Had a boring old week really - had to spend each day of this week at the hospital which has been really frustrating!

Still! We had a good laugh on Saturday at the workshop at Knit-Wise with Mark, Heather and Alison who all spun valiantly all day through wind rain and cold. We were inside drinking tea and coffee like there was no tomorrow but some poor bride braved the elements to get married so we didn't feel too badly done by.

Here are the finished skeins by the rightly proud spinners, it's always great to meet people with the same passion as yours, but also new friends from Ravelry and Etsy. Alison came all the way down from Blackpool - thats dedication and Heather came from locally but is off to London so it was nice to have her company even for a short time. Mark ventured upstairs from the shop and gave everyone the height of abuse but even so I've put his picture on here.

Heather is the first of my students ever to have spun two skeins on the day and as well as her superior intellect and natural talent I think that her having drop spindled made a lot of difference.

We're spinning again at Knit Wise on the 15th of October if you'd like to come along.

There is a world record spinning attempt on the 24th of September, some brave spinners are attempting to spin the longest piece of unbroken yarn for an hour and we all wish them the best. There is more information on the Campaign for Wool website. I'll try and post the outcome on here.
www.campaignforwool.org/blog/hand-spinning-world-record-attempt/

The niddy noddies and lazykates that I've had on my etsy page are sold out through the shop but I'm hoping to get more made up asap. I'd like to have some that are a bit more fancy for next time. Special occasion Niddy Noddies! Can't wait.

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

We've been away on our hols over the last week or so, up to Gathurst on our boat which is a beautiful part of Lancashire. We pressganged some of my daughters friends to help us through locks and bridges and pottered from pub to restaurant and back again. It's a strange way to travel, with huge chunks of time doing nothing interspersed with moments of sheer terror going through strange bridges while holding up swathes of traffic. But I feel that the weather has changed over the last week and we're not going to get many more summery days so...

Here's some inspiration from Kim Hargreaves

It's a beautiful collection of garments and well worth a look. If only for the tights/shoes combo on the front cover.

I loved this - could I knit it? Possibly with lots of encouragement. Could I breathe in long enough to wear it? I don't think so.
I've been contiuing with my knitting and completed two,(two I tell you ) hot water bottle covers. I'm pleased to have completed them at all as I'm very good at starting and not so good at finishing.

My next project I think is going to be a blanket and so I checked the colours due in for Autumn/Winter and dyed some fibres in midnight blues and lilacs. My wheel, which is lumped about with little regard for it's welfare has finally put its foot down and is complaining by not drafting in no matter what I fix or fasten. So this wool is not the best I've ever spun but as I'm going to knit it myself I'm not overly concerned. I'm happy with the shades though.

Here's the fibres, with the spun yarn and also a couple of felt balls just for good measure. We visited Fibre & Clay in Knutsford which is a wonderful yarn/gallery and well worth a visit. These midnight blue buttons were crying out to be used with this yarn so we'll see what we can do. I had planned to keep this yarn for myself but it seems to have already been nabbed!

There are new knitting boxes posted on my etsy shop in case your needles and notions are all over the place. They are beautifully made by a local craftsman who supplies wooden items that we sell in the shop. We're really pleased with them and hope they go to a knitter who will take good care as they have been so well made they deserve a good home!

As well as all this, we've got niddy noddys and lazykates on offer, so have a good look.

The next spinning workshop at Knit-Wise is fully booked but October 15th is available if any of you would like to come along. Our little guild is still going strong and we're celebrating Wool Week with a cake and a coffee on Tuesday night if you're around. Bring your knitting, crochet, or whatever woolly thing you're into, we'd love to see you